Ashes to Ashes
by padfoot and prongs unite
Summary: The life and times of Clarissa Dalton. Muggle. Army brat. Girlfriend of Sirius Black. Boy, is she in for a wild ride.


_A/N: Helloooooooo people! Prongs here. This... just kind of happened. This is what happens when I'm not paying attention in Astronomy and I have a notebook. And then I added a poem. XD_

_Ashes to Ashes_

_Dust to Dust_

_Yellow, purple, charcoal, rust_

_Hair of flax_

_Hair of night_

_Aquamarine, orange, and white_

_Eyes of coal_

_Snuff eyes like sea_

_Ivory, blue and burgundy_

_One not born_

_Is yet still gone_

_Eggplant, green, pink, saffron_

_On_e_ by one_

_The faithful mass_

_Khaki, jade, grey, and brass_

_Until, at last_

_The darkness goes_

_Denim, lilac, tan, black, rose_

_All lonely souls_

_Will find their peace_

_Sapphire, gold, cream, cerise_

_United now_

_Forever more_

_Indigo, lime, and sandy shore_

_Ashes to Ashes_

_Dust to Dust_

_Yellow, purple, charcoal, rust_

Stella laughed as the wind whipped through her hair, trailing it behind her from underneath the motorbike helmet. She wrapped her arms tighter around her boyfriend's waist. "This thing go any faster Sirius?" she asked in a teasing voice.

Sirius Black half turned to grin at her, flashing his signature devil-may-care smirk.

"What do you think?"

"I think you should step on it!"

The bike growled in response and leapt forward. Stella's answering laugh was snatched away by the wind.

The pair wound their way along a deserted road by the seaside. They were planning to find a quiet spot to picnic, then return home. But first, Sirius said he had something to show her. Stella wondered what it was, but she'd learned that nothing could pry a secret from Sirius' mouth when he got that mischievous gleam in eye like the one he had now.

Pointing ahead at a little path leading down to a quiet beach, Sirius yelled, "Look good?"

"Sure!"

The bike slowed to a stop and they got off. Stella laughed ruefully, running a hand through blonde tangles. "I had my hair all done up nice, then we had to go and get on that bloody bike!"

"Hey! My bike is amazing, thank you very much!" Sirius responded in a mock offended tone. "Besides," he murmured, wrapping his arms around her waist. "I like your hair this way."

When the two could talk again, Sirius picked up their basket of food with one hand, offering his free arm to his companion. "Shall we my lady?"

Giggling, she accepted. "We shall milord."

Together, they picked their way down the rocks onto the soft, warm sand. She spread out their blanket while he set out their things in the middle.

"So," said Stella, plopping down next to the basket. "What's this big thing you wanted to show me?" Her boyfriend snickered and she reached out casually to smack him on the back of the head. "Get your mind out of the gutter and show me."

Sirius stopped laughing and started fiddling nervously with something in his pocket. Stella stared. Sirius was _never_ nervous. She would have sworn he didn't have a nervous bone in his body before this. He took a deep breath.

"Stell, I'm not who- or what- you think I am."

"What do you mean?" she asked, confused and wary. "Not training to be a police officer, you're not 19 like you said, your name is something else? I always thought you couldn't be serious about that."

He smiled at the pun. "Well I told the truth about my name and age and, in a way, I'm training to be a police officer. Just not the way you'd think of it. I'm upholding the law, just not any sort of law you know." He pulled the thing he'd been playing with out of his pocket. It was a long, thin stick of wood. "I'm a wizard," he said soberly.

She raised an eyebrow. "Pull the other one."

"No, I'm serious!"

"Yes, I know," she said with a smirk.

He groaned. "I'm not kidding," he amended. "Here, watch. I'll prove it." Sirius flourished the stick and said something in what Stella thought sounded like Latin. She gasped as a boulder a few meters away floated up.

Pulling out of her shock, she walked over to it, grinning. "Alright, where are the ropes?" She passed her hand around it. "I'm assuming James is helping you with this?"

"No, he's not. And you won't find any ropes," her boyfriend called. "There's none there. Alright, that didn't convince you. How about this? _Orchideous!_" A bouquet of flowers appeared in his hand and he presented them to her. She accepted, but stared, wide eyed. She had watched- those flowers had literally come out nowhere.

"How-?"

"Magic," he replied like it most commonplace thing ever, wiggling the stick. _Wand,_ she corrected herself. _That's a wand!_

Stella flopped back down on their blanket, laying spread eagle, staring at the sky, and trying to come to terms with the fact that her boyfriend was a wizard.

"My boyfriend's a wizard," she repeated out loud. Even to her own ears, she sounded dazed.

"Yep, born and raised," Sirius agreed cheerfully. "And baby, you might not have magic, but you've put a real spell on me."

Stella propped herself up on her elbows to glare at him. "That was just terrible," she told him.

Her 6'2, buff, ruggedly handsome boyfriend pouted like the five year old girl he secretly was inside. "Was not."

She snorted. "Oh, it so was. It was worse than the 'Is there a fireman around? Cause you're smokin!' one you used on me at the club."

"And yet you still went out with me," he replied with a smirk.

"I never did have the best judgement."

"Hey!"

"You still love me."

"I do."

"Whipped."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Not!"

"Oh you so are."

"How did we get on this topic anyway?" Sirius asked with a laugh. "We were talking about magic."

Rolling over onto her stomach and flipping around to face Sirius, Stella propped her chin on her hands. "So we were."

"What do you want to know?"

A smile bloomed on her face.

"Everything."

A few meters away, a black cloak swished, the tail end disappearing into the trees. It galled the owner to see that blood traitor so happy. It could not be tolerated.

Not from Sirius Black.

"I want to be able to defend myself from this Grand Poohbah of Evil and his snakey minions."

Sirius barked a laugh. "I am definitely calling him that now. But a _pistol?_"

"Why not?" Stella's face was set. "It's not like I can fight them off with magic. Instead of fighting fire with fire, I'm fighting fire with explosives."

"Well that's a pretty accurate description, since it's just as likely to blow up in your face," Sirius muttered.

"And what would you have me do? I'm not going to sit around at home and wait while you risk your life out there." Stella looked him in the eye. "Sirius, I'm just as involved in this as you are. I've been dating you for three years. I'm 22, same as you. I've known about magic for two years and I know the risks involved in being with you. And I want to be able to protect myself and not be a burden to the people I love just as much as you."

Sirius sighed and reached out to tweak the end of her blonde ponytail. "Besides, it's in your blood, isn't it?"

She grinned. "Daddy was in the American army and his dad before him, and on and on, way back. He's proud of me for fighting for someone's freedom, just like he used to. Who else do you think is going to teach me to shoot?"

The young man glanced up as a trim, silver haired man entered the range with a slight limp. "Sir," Sirius greeted.

His reply was a curt, but not unfriendly nod. "You're keeping my baby girl safe?" he asked, dropping a hand on his daughter's shoulder.

Grey eyes met green, Mr. Dalton's the same light shade he had passed on to his daughter. "Always sir. Hopefully she'll be able to keep herself safe too."

Narrowed eyes hovered over the same black robes as before. So the Muggle brat was going to learn to use dirty Muggle weapons. It wouldn't really matter. It just meant a bit more caution was necessary.

After all, an idiot like Black could not be allowed to keep such happiness after what he'd done.

_Bang. Bang. Bang._

"Hey darlin'."

"You have a terrible Texas accent." Stella flicked the safety on her gun and set it down, walking over to her target to change the sheet. As she set it down and picked her gun back up, Sirius took a glance and whistled. Every hole was in the bull's eye.

"Your dad didn't mess around, did he?"

"They take guns rather seriously in the military. Do me a favor and give me a moving target?"

Sirius pulled out his wand and made the target dart around the range about as fast as he thought someone could run.

Stella shooting was a thing of beauty. She took a wide stance and her arms were steady in front of her. Her face was serious, but her eyes were full of fire. Sirius was intensely glad she was on his side. When the shooting stopped, every bullet had landed on the the target, if not dead center.

"I thought you'd only been shooting for a few months!"

Stella's hands moved, reloading the gun, though she her eyes were on Sirius and not her task. "I knew how to load and fire a gun by the time I was 10. I just haven't practiced since I was 17."

He felt his eyes widen. "Well. Seven years of shooting would do it."

"Yes. Yes it would. Did you come here to get me for something? Is there a mission?"

Sirius chuckled lightly. "Wow. The Order's really made a soldier out of you, hasn't it? No, milady, there is no mission. I just wondered if you wanted to have a little us time?"

She smiled. "That would be great. Let me just finish up here."

As his girlfriend cleaned up, Sirius fetched her bag from where she'd left it, shouldering it and offering her his other arm, as was their custom. Stella grinned, accepting it, and he led her out to his motorbike.

They flew above the road, away from the small shooting range behind Headquarters and towards the open country. Stopping in a small, secluded meadow, Sirius helped her off the bike. Lifting the seat, he brought out a blanket and laid it on the ground for them. Legs extended in opposite directions, they laid down with their heads next to each other, looking at the late March stars.

"Look, there's my namesake," Sirius said, pointing at the corner of Canis Major, near the horizon.

Stella snorted. "Your family is so weird, naming you after stars."

Sirius grimaced. Yeah, it's a weird tradition. You have to be named after something that's in the sky when you're born."

"Well we're not naming our child Perseus or Orion or anything else that's in the sky in December."

Stella grinned and started counting. _One... Two... Three..._

"Wait, what?!"

She turned her head to beam at him. "I'm pregnant Sirius."

He grinned back and reached one hand up to rest it tenderly on her belly. "Wow."

"I think that about sums it up."

They were too busy to talk for a while after that.

Lip curled up in a sneer, the silent watcher's only reaction to this momentous new was disgust.

_Not another one..._

This aberration could not be allowed to continue any longer. It would end.

Soon.

Stella was laughing at a joke Sirius made, with her hands resting on her barely bulging belly, when Marlene McKinnon burst in. Their laughter died as soon as they saw her face.

"Who?" Stella asked, closing her eyes and clenching her hands into fists.

"Gideon and Fabian Prewett." Stella sucked in her breath, hard.

Sirius looked shell-shocked. "But- they were so full of life, and such good fighters..."

Marlene smiled bitterly. "Well they took three of the five that attacked them down too and seriously injured someone else from the amount of blood."

Stella let her head drop back to rest against the wall behind the couch they were seated on and let the conversation wash over her, not really listening.

She had always been sad about deaths in the Order; she cried for a week when Benji Fenwick came back in pieces and still couldn't believe she was never going to see sweet but fierce little Dorcas Meadows anymore. But the death of Gideon and Fabian awakened something else in her, an intense, smoldering fire of anger deep within her that would not be put out. Sirius was right- the twins had been full of life and light, always happy, even in the middle of a war. The fact that the Death Eaters had destroyed two of the brightest lights she'd ever known made her want to destroy _them_ in return.

Abruptly, the conversation cut off and Stella opened her eyes to see Alice Longbottom standing there in the doorway, white faced.

"They're attacking a bus full of Muggles, middle of Bath," she announced, tight lipped. "Let's go."

Stella stood up with everyone else, grabbing Sirius' arm like she always did for Side-Along. "Take me with you."

Her boyfriend's eyes were flat. "No. You're pregnant and we don't have time to argue about this."

Her eyes were just as serious as his. "Good, don't argue. I'm going."

He shook her off. "No. I promised your dad I'd keep you safe." He started to turn.

She grabbed his robe at the last second and appeared next to him in the middle of a busy road, full of stopped cars. "And I can take care of myself," she retorted, taking off before he could take her back to Headquarters.

The Death Eaters had been levitating the bus and shaking around the Muggles inside, but they were forced to drop it as the Order engaged them and it landed on its side. Stella scrambled on top and forced the doors, luckily unblocked, to open. Then she moved to the middle and wrenched open a window, reaching down for a child being handed up to her. She sent the child scurrying to the nearest building and reached down for someone else. A man who'd climbed out the doors was a few windows down, helping out others.

"What's going on?" he yelled to her.

"Wizards," she replied shortly, grasping the arms of a teenage boy and using all her strength to haul him out. The boy turned grimly to another window as soon as he was out, lifting a screaming toddler from the wreck.

"You one?" the man asked.

"Nope, my boyfriend. He's one of the good guys." She patted the holster on her thigh. "I'm not exactly defenseless either."

He grunted and they didn't talk anymore, just pulled. Soon everyone was out and the man and boy jumped from the top of the bus. The boy turned to look at her.

"You coming?"

She crouched on the edge of the bus. "What's your name?"

He seemed taken aback by the question, but answered, "Martin Creevey."

"Well Martin Creevey, have you ever seen someone die? I have. I've lost more friends to these people than I'd care to count. I'm staying up here until I run out of bullets or get blasted off."

He looked up at her with admiring eyes. "Good luck," he said, picking up a young girl with a broken leg and striding to the nearest building.

Stella gazed after him a moment, then stood up, bracing herself on the tilted bus and bringing her pistol up. "This is for Gideon." She shot a Death Eater in the leg. "For Fabian." She shot one in the arm. "For Dorcas and the Bones family and for Benji." One by one, she named other dead or missing members of the Order, people who had been her friends, and shot Death Eaters. She kept her head enough not to kill anyone, but only just.

Then she saw someone's wand swing up to point at Sirius. She fired, but the gun was empty and Sirius was busy fighting someone else.

"NO!" she screeched, and flung herself in front of the beam of white light heading towards her love. Stella felt a searing pain across her front and felt blood rushing out as she looked into the face of the man above her, the one who had been plotting to kill Sirius for years, though she didn't know that.

Black eyes met green and they stared each other down before one head dropped back and one pair of eyes could see no more.

Attention grabbed by the scream, Sirius watched in horror. A furious yell burst from him and he brought his wand up.

Death Eaters feared Sirius Black that day.

Years later, as the the man once the scourge of Death Eaters everywhere fell through a veil in the Ministry of Magic, he reflected that it was good that a certain ring was still in his pocket, as the promise he'd planned to deliver that day, so many years ago, was still in his heart.

And a few years after that, the same black eyes as before once again met green, and through the images of fiery hair and a laughing smile, Severus Snape took one moment to remember a lighter set of green eyes and wondered if the Muggle girl whose name he'd never known had forgiven him.

His Earthly vision went black, but his spirit took one last look at the messy haired boy he'd died protecting. Then he turned, the scene already blurring to white, his pain gone.

Behind him, he saw, laughing as they walked, three couples approaching slowly, arm in arm and encased in golden light. One couple consisted of a brown haired man, significantly younger looking than when Severus had last seen him, and a witch with bright pink hair. Another was a man with messy black hair and a woman with bright red hair. He cast a longing look at her, but knew he had to look at the last couple.

He gulped as he faced these last two, though not because of the handsome man, nor the light-green eyed woman. Rather, he was nervous due to the blonde haired, silver eyed young lady who emerged from behind the pair to regard him seriously.

"Because of you, I died before I had a chance to live. My heart never beat and my lungs never drew breath," she told him. He bowed his head, yet when he glanced up seconds later, she was beaming at him. "Be welcome, Severus Snape, for you are forgiven. Come." She extended a hand to him, and he took it hesitantly. The golden light encased him as well and his eyes widened at the things he now saw, the hands reaching out to welcome him home. The others all smiled at him and he sought a pair of green eyes, though not the pair he'd expect.

"Welcome to the rest of forever, Severus," said Stella Clarissa Dalton-Black. "Are you ready?"

The Beginning

_A/N: So yeah. That's what's happened. Definitely. It's cannon now. (Blatant lies.) Shut up brain. (You shut up.) What is my life? I'm typing to myself. I hope you liked it, it's one of my favorites!_


End file.
